Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Related to ants and wasps, bees come in a massive variety of forms throughout the world, but all feed at least partially on plant matter (especially nectar and pollen) with the exception of three bizarre species in the genus Trigona. These stingless social bees raise their larvae almost exclusively on decaying meat, which they chew and regurgitate into a liquid form the same way other bees make honey, filling their egg chambers with a thick, sticky slurry of rotten flesh.

Bone Worms

Hagfish may be the sea’s leading connoisseurs of rotten meat, but there’s still a lot of nutrients locked deep within a skeleton once the flesh-eaters have had their fill. This is the domain of the Osedax worms, also affectionately referred to by some researchers as “zombie worms” and “snot flowers.” More plant-like than worm-like in anatomical structure, these otherworldly creatures drill into bare bones with a network of corrosive “roots,” breathe through pink, flower-like gills and rely on symbiotic bacteria to metabolize the lipids in bone tissue. At least, the females do, anyhow. Male Osedax are virtually microscopic, and live inside the females by the hundreds, continuously fertilizing thousands of tiny eggs. Like fungal spores, these eggs are released to drift in the water, hatching only when they come into contact with a suitable skeleton.